Detection of Viruses and Changes of Protein of Saliva in Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Ulcer

구내 재발성 아프타성 궤양 환자에서 타액내 바이러스 검출 및 단백질의 변화

This study was performed to discover the underlining influences of Herpes Simplex virus (HSV) and Varicella Zoster virus (VZV), to detect the changes of whole protein and mucin level and to observe protein profiles in the saliva when recurrent aphthous ulcer (RAU) was present. Unstimulated whole saliva was collected from 23 patients who for over three years had a clinical history of RAU, in a group of 10 women and 13 men, ranging from 11 to 72 years of age, and 20 healthy subjects, in a group of 8 women and 12 men, who did not have the symptoms nor a past history of RAU. Through the means of Polymerization Chain Reaction, genomic DNA from the HSV and VZV was purified from the saliva samples for identifying precisely the two types of viruses, and the level of whole protein and sialic acids in the saliva and the ratio of sialic acid to whole protein were measured, and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was performed. The results obtained were as follows ; 1. 39.13% of patients showed 224 bp bands of VZV DNA, those were appeared more in patients than in control group (p<0.01), but there was no significant difference between patients and control group in HSV DNA (p>0.05). 2. The concentration of whole protein in men patients was lower than in men control group (p<0.05), but there were no significant differences between patients and control in other groups (p>0.05). 3. The concentration of sialic acids from patients was lower than control group in all groups (p<0.05). 4. The concentration of sialic acids in proportion to that of whole protein was lower in patients than in control group (p<0.05), and in the two women groups (p<0.01), but no noticeable difference was found between the two men groups (p>0.05). 5. There were no consistent differences observed in the protein profiles of patients with control group except that certain protein bands near 50 kDa was lower in patients than in control group. These results suggest that viruses such as HSV and VZV and reduction of salivary whole protein and mucin levels are related to development of RAU.